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STATE OF NEW YORK 



REPORT 



OF THE 



Jesse Ketchum 
Memorial Commission 



TRANSMITTED TO THE LEGISLATURE MARCH 6, 1917 



ALBANY 
J. B. LYON COMPANY. PRINTERS 
1917 



STATE OF NEW YORK 



REPORT 



OF THE 






iA^^n^fh^^)jQgSQ Ketchum 

Memorial Commission 



TRANSMITTED TO THE LEGISLATURE MARCH 6, 1917 



ALBANY 
J. B. LYON COMPANY, PRINTERS 
1917 



'ZB86 



D. of D. 

OCT '■■ 19W 



^ 



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State of New York 



^ :No. 57 

i . — 



IN SENATE 

March 6, 1917 



Report of the Jesse Ketchum Memorial 
Commission 



To the Governor and the Legislature : 

I liave the honor to submit the report of the Jesse Ketchum 
Memorial Commission. 

This Commission was created by Chapter 500 of the Laws 
of 1914 for the purpose of erecting a bronze statue to Jesse 
Ketchum to commemorate his services in the cause of public 
education in providing for the use of the State of 'New York 
the site now occupied by the Buffalo State Normal School. The 
Act creating the Commission also appropriated the sum of 
$5,000.00 for the purpose and also to defray the actual neces- 
sary traveling and other expenses of the Commission incurred 
in pursuance of its official duties. 

The members of the Commission appointed by Governor Mar- 
tin H. GljTin under the Act were as follows: Edward H. But- 
ler, A. Conger Goodyear, David E. Peugeot, Daniel Upton and 
Edward H. Gallagher, all of whom immediately qualified after 
their appointment for the discharge of the duties imposed by the 
Act, excepting Edward H. Gallagher, in whose place and stead 
in April, 1915, Governor Charles S. Whitman appointed Mr. 
Hobart Weed, now deceased, who duly qualified, and became 
the fifth member of the Commission. 



4 [Senate 

On September 22, 1914, the Commission was organized by 
the election of Edward H. Butler as chairman and David E. 
Peugeot as Secretary. 

An invitation was thereafter extended to various sculptors 
and artists to submit designs and estimates of cost, etc., which 
were given full discussion and consideration at subsequent meet- 
ings of the Commission, and it was decided that the appropria- 
tion was w^holly inadequate for the purposes named in the 
statute, and it w^as decided by the Commission to ask the Legisla- 
ture of 1915 so to amend the Act as to give the Commission 
greater discretion as to the form that the Memorial should take, 
for after a thorough study of the subject, the Commission were 
unanimously of the opinion that a Memorial that would be of 
service in the work of the Buifalo formal School would be far 
more appropriate and in keeping with the character and efforts 
of Jesse Ketchum du.ring his lifetime. 

Chapter 173 of the Laws of 1915, approved April 3, 1915, 
amending Chapter 500 of the Laws of 1914, gave the Commis- 
sion the desired discretion to select and purchase a Memorial 
which in its judgment would be suitable and appropriate to 
accomplish the purpose of the statute, and it also provided that 
a feature of the Memorial should be a bronze tablet with appro- 
priate marking or wording that it was erected in commemora- 
tion of the services of Jesse Ketchum in the cause of public 
education. 

On April 30, 1915, the Commission met and re-elected its 
former officers and also decided to have built and installed in 
the Assembly-room of the new Buffalo l^ormal School building, 
a pipe organ for use in the work of the school, together with 
the tablet required by the law as amended. Invitations were 
thereupon extended to various organ-building companies to send 
representatives to look over the premises and submit bids for 
the necessary work required to build and install an organ and 
subsequently a contract w^as awarded to the Hook & Hastings 
Co. of Kendall Green, Mass., whose bid of $4,800.00 for the 
complete work was deemed, after consultation with expert organ- 
ist, as most advantageous to the State. A bid of $200.00 for 
the desioii and construction of the Tablet bv John Harrison 



No. 57] 6 

Mills of Buffalo was also accepted by the Commission and a 
contract awarded to him. 

During the summer of 1916 the organ was installed in the 
Assembly-room of the school and was thoroughly tested by the 
greatest organists of Buffalo before being accepted by the Com- 
mission. These organists pronounced the instrument a perfect 
and splendid organ and heartily congratulated the Commission 
on the choice. 

The dedication of the organ and the unveiling of the Tablet 
took place on the eleventh day of January, 1917, with the fol- 
loAving programme: 

DEDICATION OF THE JESSE KETCHUM MEMOKIAL, JANUAEY 11, 

1917, 

AT THE 

AUDITOEIUM, BUFFALO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 

Order of Exercises. 

Introductory Remarks Mr. Edward H. Butler 

Chairman Jesse Ketchum Memorial Commission. 

The Ketchum Memorial Idea Mr. David E. Peugeot 

Secretaa-y Jesse Ketchum Memorial Commission. 

Organ Selections Mr. Seth Clark 

Organist Trinity Church. 

Prelude Heroic • • Faulkes 

At Twilight Frysinger 

Intermezzo • • Hollins 

Verset Claussmann 

Marche Pittoresque -Kroeger 

Remarks Concerning the Life and Influence of Jesse Ketchum 

Dr. Henry P. Emerson 
Superintendent of Education, Buffalo, N. Y. 

Song — " Alma Mater " Normal School Students 

Remarks Concerning the Life of John Harrison Mills, Who Designed 

the Ketchum Tablet • • The Rev. L. 0. Williams 

Pastor Church of the Messiah, Buffalo, N. Y. 

Song — '•' America " Students and Guests 

At the top of the Tablet in relief is a portrait of Jesse Ketchum 
and in the lower right-hand comer is the Great Seal of the State 
of Xew York. The inscription on the Tablet reads as follows: 

^' To commemorate with honor the life and efforts of Jesse 
Ketchum, a citizen of Buffalo and a loyal friend of public 
education, the State of ISTew York erects this Tablet and has in- 
stalled the organ in this School — October 4th, 1916." 



(5 [Senate, ISTo. 57] 

The total ainount uppropriated by the State for the Jesse 
Ketchum Memorial was $5,000.00, and while the Act provided 
for the payment of the necessary traveling and incidental expenses 
of the Commission out of the appropriation, the members of the 
Commission have taken great pleasure in giving their services 
to the performance of the duties imposed upon them by the 
Statute, and have incurred no expenses for travel or communica- 
tion, and this has enabled them to make the full sum appropriated 
by the State available for the Memorial. 

The Commission, therefore, is veiy happy to report that of the 
$5,0€0.00 available for its use it has disbursed the appropriation 
as follows: 

To the Hook & Hastings Co., Kendall Green, 

Mass., for building and installing the organ. . . . $4,800 00 

To John Harrison Mills, Buffalo, E". Y., for de- 
signing and casting bronze tablet 200 00 



Total $5,000 00 



That the Commission has no outstanding obligations whatever 
and that its work is completed. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 
By order of the Commission, 

DAVID E. PEUGEOT, 

Secretary. 
Buffalo, :N^. Y., Feb. 23, 1917. 



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